Per MM.....Bobby April IS ON 49ERS' RADAR :

I dont know much about him other than he was with the Bills. Why are a lot of people wanting to get him? Did the Bills have a pretty good special teams?

good

Great. SO he has a choice between us and perennial contenders Pittsburgh, who never fires coaches. I wonder which one he'll choose.

I was wondering what his name was. I have been hearing that the Bills effed up in their house cleaning and also axed supposedly a promising special teams coach.

Bobby April huh.

Originally posted by TX9R:
Great. SO he has a choice between us and perennial contenders Pittsburgh, who never fires coaches. I wonder which one he'll choose.

Ouch, hopefully Singletary some how persuades him.


For anyone wondering about Bobby April:

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/bobby-april-receives-coach-of-the-year-award/a00275cb-f7b6-4229-8e5a-b6af83758df0

Originally posted by Gore_21:

Originally posted by TX9R:
Great. SO he has a choice between us and perennial contenders Pittsburgh, who never fires coaches. I wonder which one he'll choose.

Ouch, hopefully Singletary some how persuades him.


For anyone wondering about Bobby April:

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/bobby-april-receives-coach-of-the-year-award/a00275cb-f7b6-4229-8e5a-b6af83758df0

Also, you gotta love our FOs tenacity. He's "on our radar" yet the Steelers already interviewed him. That's how you run things, find a problem, ID a fix, act swiftly. Not wait until some coaches meeting when it's convenient.

Originally posted by Gore_21:

Originally posted by TX9R:
Great. SO he has a choice between us and perennial contenders Pittsburgh, who never fires coaches. I wonder which one he'll choose.

Ouch, hopefully Singletary some how persuades him.


For anyone wondering about Bobby April:

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/bobby-april-receives-coach-of-the-year-award/a00275cb-f7b6-4229-8e5a-b6af83758df0

With the success of Harbaugh in Baltimore, I think more front offices will hire guys like April for HC gigs. If April can turn a mediocre ST unit to a top 5 ST unit, he'll get the opportunity for a HC gig.

Now, the biggest question is what team will provide him the resources to make that step up happen. The 49ers have a good kicker, pro-bowl punter, and the best long snapper in the game. The main fix is the return and coverage units.

I don't know anything about the Steelers unit, but the 49ers should be an attractive place for a special teams coach.

Hopefully the Steeler's stay cheap and we "Show him The Money"
BTW what kind of Money does a ST coach get paid...?

Originally posted by Buonaparte69:
Matt Maiocco

Hopefully management gets something done right and signs him and he wants to come here

fixed. Signing people works two ways. If a guy doesnt want to come here, there's nothing the team can do to get him here.

Originally posted by btthepunk:
I dont know much about him other than he was with the Bills. Why are a lot of people wanting to get him? Did the Bills have a pretty good special teams?

Yeah, they did and pretty consistently as well. Rick Gosselin from the Dallas Morning News annually compiles a ranking of the NFL special teams units and his rankings are highly respected throughout the league and more or less the "official" rankings for special teams units.

I found the article with last seasons (the 2008 season) special teams ranking from Gosselin and the Bills were No. 1 that season. I think the rankings for this season will follow pretty soon as well, but in those rankings, the Bills were one of the best or the best special teams units in the NFL under Bobby April year in and out (btw. the Niners were actually No. 6 on that ranking in 2008, but I guess our ranking will take a dive this year).

Link

This sentence about the Bills special teams should be especially telling what a good job Bobby April did in Buffalo:

Quote:
It was the third time in the last five years the Bills have fielded the NFL's best special teams.

So when the 49ers can persuade April to come to San Francisco (I hope that after years in Buffalo, Coach April got sick of cold-weather places and sees the advantages of some California sun ), that would be great. Our special teams were already good under Al Everest, but Bobby April had the best unit in the entire league, so I think he would actually be an upgrade.

And as a sidenote, Bobby April always had some wacky special teams plays up his sleeve, like fake punt runs and Touchdown passes from the kicker. I cannot help it, I would love to see some of those in San Francisco

We will end up with McDuff beer.

maybe the west coast will be appealing

Originally posted by TX9R:
Great. SO he has a choice between us and perennial contenders Pittsburgh, who never fires coaches. I wonder which one he'll choose.

Bobby April was fired by Bill Cowher in 1995 after one season as Special Teams Coordinator.

But they never fire coaches, right?